Commune with Jeff Krasno

Jet-lagged and wandering solo through Paris's Latin Quarter, Jeff slips through an unmarked blue door and stumbles into a hidden courtyard mid street-party — wine, a stranger's guitar, a dance circle pulling in everyone within reach. The next day, he can't find it again. In this episode, Jeff traces that one improbable night — the shrine to Sainte Geneviève, the sing-along, the bejeweled stranger who hands him a bottle of Bordeaux, pulling him into the dance — and the fruitless afternoon spent retracing his steps with his daughters through a maze of identical alleys. Along the way, he lands on a truth his daughter Lolli taught him years earlier, after losing an osprey's nest in the marsh grass outside their beach cottage: some things reveal themselves exactly once, and chasing them a second time only proves the point. This is the fourteenth episode of Diaries of a Dance Dad, an audio memoir series in Jeff's own words. It spans the full arc of parenthood: the inhale of birth and early chaos, the grind of no sleep and travel with kids, the gut-punches of failure, and the slow exhale of letting go. This episode was made possible by: CocoaVia: Use code COMMUNE2026 for 25% off at CocoaVia.com Stripes: Visit ⁠stripesbeauty.com⁠ and use the code COMMUNE20 for 20% off our entire product line. Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at ⁠vivobarefoot.com/commune⁠. Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at ⁠drinklmnt.com/commune⁠.

Can artificial intelligence ever be conscious? Michael Pollan says no, and at the Harvest Series in Kaplankaya, he lays out exactly why, starting with what he calls a faulty metaphor: the idea that the brain is a computer. Jeff and Pollan dig into consciousness science, plant sentience, and the psychedelic research that shaped Pollan's thinking, then turn to AI, chatbots, and what happens when people mistake simulation for feeling. The neuroscience case against AI consciousness, and why feelings may require a body, mortality, and the ability to suffer Plant sentience explained: what it means for a plant to sense, evaluate, and act, without being "conscious" The 22 competing theories of consciousness, and why they all hit the same wall Why the upper brainstem, not the cortex, may be where consciousness actually begins The rise of "AI psychosis" and why 72% of American teens now turn to AI for companionship This episode is for anyone following the AI consciousness debate who wants the case laid out by someone who's spent years studying the real science. This episode was made possible by: CocoaVia: Use code COMMUNE2026 for 25% off at CocoaVia.com Stripes: Visit stripesbeauty.com and use the code COMMUNE20 for 20% off our entire product line. Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at vivobarefoot.com/commune. Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/commune.

Dante reserved his ninth circle for traitors, frozen for eternity. Jeff reserves it for competition dads who risk a bathroom break and miss their daughter's 90-second routine. In this episode, Jeff catalogs the special purgatory of the competition dance dad — the 5:30 a.m. wake-ups, the backstage snack runs, the UTI he'd rather get than miss a lyrical solo — until his daughters take the stage and, for four minutes, all of it makes sense. This is the thirteenth episode of Diaries of a Dance Dad, an audio memoir series in Jeff's own words. It spans the full arc of parenthood: the inhale of birth and early chaos, the grind of no sleep and travel with kids, the gut-punches of failure, and the slow exhale of letting go. Order Diaries of a Dance Dad audiobook & hear the tales that bookend my paternal journey from cradle to empty nestdom at ⁠⁠⁠onecommune.com/dancedad.⁠⁠⁠ This episode was made possible by: LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at ⁠drinklmnt.com/commune⁠. Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at ⁠vivobarefoot.com/commune⁠. Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD CocoaVia: Use code COMMUNE2026 for 25% off at CocoaVia.com

A low dose of tirzepatide, taken purely to move the needle on cholesterol, turned out to move a lot more than that. In this episode, Jeff sits down again with Dr. Robin Berzin, founder of Parsley Health, to go through his bloodwork and an unexpected side effect: a blunting of desire that shows up in his coffee, his cocktails, and his ambition. Why losing your appetite for food can also mean losing it for coffee, alcohol, and sex What the dopamine and serotonin circuitry are actually doing on a GLP-1 The line between healthy desire and maladaptive craving, and where these drugs land on it Why some people feel liberated when "food noise" disappears, and others feel flattened What Jeff's ApoB and LDL numbers say about who these drugs actually help This episode is for anyone on a GLP-1 or weighing one, and anyone curious what these drugs are doing beyond the scale. This episode was made possible by: LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at ⁠drinklmnt.com/commune⁠. Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at ⁠vivobarefoot.com/commune⁠. Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/commune. CocoaVia: Use code COMMUNE2026 for 25% off at CocoaVia.com

On her birthday, in a rented house in Hanalei, Jeff's daughter can't stop vomiting — and nothing he does helps. In this episode, Jeff traces a frightening hospital stay in Kauai back through years of guesswork about her health — probiotics, boundaries, arguments over medication — and finds, in a room stripped of anything else to do, an unexpected closeness with her. This is the twelfth episode of Diaries of a Dance Dad, an audio memoir series in Jeff's own words. It spans the full arc of parenthood: the inhale of birth and early chaos, the grind of no sleep and travel with kids, the gut-punches of failure, and the slow exhale of letting go. Order Diaries of a Dance Dad audiobook & hear the tales that bookend my paternal journey from cradle to empty nestdom at onecommune.com/dancedad. This episode was made possible by: Stripes: Visit ⁠stripesbeauty.com⁠ and use the code COMMUNE20 for 20% off our entire product line. Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at ⁠vivobarefoot.com/commune⁠. Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at ⁠drinklmnt.com/commune⁠. CocoaVia: Use code COMMUNE2026 for 25% off at CocoaVia.com